SANTA CLARA, CA - The clock strikes
9 p.m. on Friday night and gentlemen clad in all styles of artificial
hairpieces begin to arrive at their de facto headquarters, a house just off
Santa Clara University’s campus known by its alias, Club Rio.
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These fine members have their hairpieces on tight,
as they will shortly be House Johnson'd and only a
hack would loose their hairpiece.
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Don’t be fooled by the young men
with the mullets, rattails, and pageboy cuts gathering at Club Rio, this is no
glam rock concert. No, this is the calm before the storm that will soon become
the Tony Perkis Workout Extravaganza – the first party of the quarter hosted by
the Santa Clara Hairpiece Club for Men.
Equipped with their finest
hairpieces and their cheapest wine, beer, or liquor, the twenty-some male Santa
Clara students comprising the group file in. They begin to pour drinks,
achieving a healthy buzz before the festivities commemorating
Tony Perkis – Ben
Stiller’s character in the film
Heavyweights,
known for his magnificent long hair – are to start.
As guests constantly shuffle in and
the drinks continue to flow, Club Rio becomes, as promised, a full-blown
hairpiece extravaganza by midnight. Another success in the books for the Santa
Clara Hairpiece Club For Men.
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| Santa Clara Hairpiece Club for Women? |
The Tony Perkis Workout Extravaganza
is but the latest in a long line of events put on by the Santa Clara Hairpiece
Club For Men dating back to its inception. The name of the club connotes a tie
to the university and a formal structure, but to be clear, this is simply a
group of individuals that find mutual pleasure in a finely groomed hairpiece
and a few glasses of chardonnay. In fact, the original members founded the
loose organization in 2009 as a laidback, easy-going alternative to the
established social options in college.
The transition from high school to
college can be difficult to cope with. Finding a niche in an unfamiliar
environment of new students and surroundings is a challenge that all incoming
students must inevitably face. Perhaps most unsettling, there is no prescribed way
to go about it.
Some turn to the Greek system to
build their social structure, certain students join on-campus organizations,
and others take up club sports. But this unique group at Santa Clara University
spurned all the traditional avenues and found their social circle in the least
likely of unifying factors: artificial hairpieces.
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Turn On: Dudes in Hairpieces
Photo Courtesy of Bagel Johnson |
One group of friends in Santa
Clara’s class of 2011 started out as a mere collection of students just trying
to find their place. Like so many others, they spent their weekend nights at
house parties around Santa Clara letting the existing social scene call their
shots.
“One day we hit Savers or some
thrift store like that and just came across some wigs,” says Kurt Natter, a
founding member of the group. “These things were hilarious, and we weren’t not going to buy them. It wasn’t too
long until we started wearing them out at night and it just caught on.”
Alas, the Santa Clara Hairpiece
Club for Men was born. Slowly but surely it began catering to a section of the
student population fond of outlandish accessories but not so high on defined
institutional structures.
The appeal of fraternities is bred
from their promise of brotherhood and time-honored traditions. Campus groups
are typically founded on social activism, shared aspirations, and a routine
schedule of events. The Santa Clara Hairpiece Club for Men is unique not only
in that it is centered on unorthodox accessories, but also in its
uncharacteristically loose organization.
 |
Phil DiTulio, a rising star in the Hairpiece
Movement asks, "What? Are you not gonna wear
a hairpiece? C'mon" |
“The spontaneity of it, the
randomness. We don’t even have a defined set of members, just throw a hairpiece
on and that’s pretty much it, see what happens,” says member Christian Workman.
“Whenever anyone puts a hairpiece on it’s always a good time, always positive
energy and that’s what we’re looking for in putting this together. It adds
another dimension to our social life.”
The group has no official tie to
the school, and for now that is how they would like to keep it. But just
because the club’s members do not wish to formalize their status does not mean
they are slouches when it come to their wigs. Of all accessories they could
have chosen to identify with the hairpiece is far from arbitrary.
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Nick Munoz, a prophet of sorts ponders why
Rick James ever went out of style. |
“I’m not a fashion expert, but with
the current state of male hair you tend to see shorter haircuts in comparison
to the eras of the seventies and eighties,” Workman says. “Where’s the mullet?
Where’s the greased-back hair? You don’t see that as much anymore. Nowadays
it’s really more clean-cut, clean-shaven.”
The concept of the group is simple,
yet poignant. Members meet up before an evening of hitting the town and grab
their finest hairpieces in hopes of inspiring awe and astonishment. They then
proceed to party the night away, channeling the essence of an era when the male
hairdo was still provocative.
Though the title might suggest a
drearily singular focus, the Santa Clara Hairpiece Club for Men has found ways
to incorporate other elements while remaining true to their roots as hair
enthusiasts. In their attempt to embody past decades the club has also added
velour tracksuits, sunglasses, sparkly blazers, and visors to their repertoire
at one time or another.
Similar hairpiece clubs are not
popping up on campuses nationwide, at least not yet. But professor of social
psychology at SCU, Dr. Amara Brook, is not surprised that this trend has
materialized.
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| She's a Doctor, listen up. |
“Whenever you get a countercultural
organization like that, they tend to have a stronger bond and stick together,”
says Dr. Brook. “When it’s such a stigmatizing and unusual trait as a false
hairpiece, it will usually draw the group closer.”
The Santa Clara Hairpiece Club for
Men could not agree more, as it continues to add new members intent on joining
the lifestyle. Some call the club preposterous, others call it avant-garde, but
the fact of the matter is that the inebriated men wearing hairpieces are here
to stay.
----Post By Connor Witt
